Why Did Nicki Minaj Endorse Mitt Romney?

A silly question, but an important one nonetheless.

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MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL This might seem like a waste of time to bother thinking about, but I promise (or dearly hope) it isn't: Nicki Minaj's verse on Lil' Wayne's "Mercy," a song delivered over the musical backdrop of Kanye West's track of the same name, boasts an endorsement of Mitt Romney. Minaj-or, careful not to stumble into the freshman year indiscretion of identifying speaker with poetess, one of her legion personalities-raps, "I'm a Republican voting for Mitt Romney/You lazy b----es is f-----g up the economy."

To those few who remain Young Money novitiates, Minaj's work is a game of shadows, an exercise in deception and imposture, rap's princess pivoting from character to character several times in a single verse. Fey and squeaky-sounding one second, the next her voice will spin off into a horrifying, hellish bellow. Since her breakout verse on Kanye's "Monster," these acrobatics-her volatility and willingness to stretch into new registers and tones-have made her into a hip-hop icon, a symbol of the genre's march along the terra nova of the human voice.

But here's the rub: Even if Minaj isn't serious about her endorsement (unlikely because she's Tweeted that Obama's health care legislation doesn't go far enough), is there a connection between this sort of laissez-faire worldview and your average rapper's relentless brag about his or her status as a nouveau riche?

After all, she has a legitimate deal with Adidas AG (ADDDF) to promote the Adidas Originals line of shoes. A $16 billion company obviously takes her seriously.

Even if hip-hop opinion has always leaned to the left, who's to rule out a future parvenu supporting the sort of Republican platform that cuts domestic spending and privatizes Medicare? So maybe the joke's on Nicki, too, if we're also profoundly gullible-what makes us believe her so easily? Is Nicki's slip a prank or parapraxis?